A dramatic picture of people golfing at Beacon Rock Golf Course in North Bonneville while a hillside across the Columbia River in Oregon goes up in flames has taken on a life of its own. It's been
tweeted by David Simon
for 30,000 likes. It has
over 53,000 upvotes
on Reddit. It's been shared on almost every social platform and
meme-ified
. All without attribution.

So, who took the shot? A novice photographer in the billing department of a company she'd rather not name, who lives in Vancouver, Wash.

"I don't golf at all," Kristi McCluer said over the phone on Thursday morning. Instead, she said, "I have spent a great part of my life in the Columbia River Gorge, hiking."

"I was actually going to drive up to the Bridge of the Gods," McCluer said. But she saw a parking lot and decided to pull in. After being told she couldn't park there because it was actually a road, she found a real parking lot that was nearly empty.

"Around the corner was this golf course ," she said, "and you could see the fire."

So she started snapping pictures.

"It's a real photo," she confirmed, of the picture of people golfing as the fire roars. She did lighten it a little bit, but other than that, the photo captures the moment.

The owners of Beacon Rock Golf Course, as well as one of the golfers pictured,
confirmed Wednesday
that the pictures were real and from Beacon Rock Golf Course, though they weren't sure who took the exact shot.

Up until now, McCluer has remained fairly anonymous. She said she posted the photo to Facebook, where she uses a pseudonym, and then a friend of hers shared it on Reddit. Once it had 30,000 upvotes, he told her he'd shared it.

The response to her pictures has been somewhat overwhelming.

"It's a little weird to be honest," McCluer said. "I am a very private person."

McCluer loves to hike and takes her camera with her wherever she goes, but she doesn't really consider herself a photographer, more "a girl with the camera," she said.

She takes a lot of pictures.

"Mostly what I do with them," she said, "is I make calendars for friends and family at the end of the year."